Review: 

It’s a bird.  It’s a plane.  It’s that guy who we all know is able to leap tall buildings and lift more than any normal being can.   It’s Superman.  And saying that means more than it ever has in Superman Returns: The videogame.  It’s the first time out with any Superman game that I actually felt like the Man of Steel.  But does that mean it’s the perfect Superman game and that you should run out and buy it right now?  What does the old X-ray vision show when you look into the meat of this game?  Let’s find out.

Gameplay, Graphics, and Sound

Superman Returns: The Videogame is based on the movie of the same name about everyone’s favorite flying guy in blue tights.  The one saving grace in that regard is that it doesn’t completely follow the movie so you’re not stuck simply replaying the movie scene by scene.  You take on the role of Superman to save the city of Metropolis from near disaster each time trouble pokes its head out.  All of your super powers are there from the start so you don’t have to unlock them.  You do though have the option of upgrading those powers as the game progresses to make them stronger and more effective.  Heat vision, Super breath and Freeze breath are all at your disposal and each have levels of upgrade you can obtain.  They’re each mapped to the D-pad.  Once upgraded, you’ll experience some great use of those powers.  A completely leveled up Heat vision is a sight to see.

You can also learn many different A, X, Y, B button combos to unleash on the enemy.  There’s nothing like the Jor-El Fist!  I didn’t count the number of combos there are but you’ll have plenty at your disposal.  Some of them are a task at pulling off while others are simple.

Controlling Superman was perhaps the best part of the game.  You actually feel like you’re flying around at incredible speeds above an incredible city.  Hitting the RB button never felt so good.  Every time I hit the RB button to engage my super speed I though to myself…I Am Superman!  I remember chasing down meteors when the game first begins.  I almost, for a minute, had a bit of sweat run down my forehead wondering if I’d be able to stop the meteors in time as they headed down towards Metropolis. 

Your life meter is actually the city’s pulse.  You can’t allow the city to take too much damage or else it’s bye-bye Superman.  Damage is any type of destruction in the city from wrecking buildings to burning trees or civilian casualties.  In order to stop your Metropolis meter from fully depleting you need to stop the damage by putting out the fires with your freeze breath or simply destroying all robots etc.  After each battle, you’re allowed a few moments to rebuild your Metropolis meter by rescuing any hurt civilians and taking them to nearby ambulances.  Some of them end up being quite a distance from the battles so getting the injured to safety isn’t always feasible.

Outside of the robots (both on the ground and in air), you’ll be faced with boss battles.  The bosses range from Metallo to Bizarro.  I can’t say I felt any of them as a threat though.  With as monstrous as Metallo was, defeating him was pretty easy and didn’t involve any of the superhero vs evil villain anxiety that you’d expect.  If there’s one thing to point out that didn’t quite work it was the ease of handling all the battles.  I understand Superman can’t really be defeated but it’s a videogame so let’s make it as least difficult for him. 

Much of the action is of the classic rinse and repeat variety.  Although fun to do over and over because of how well Superman was designed, it does get tiring.

The city of Metropolis is shown as many of you, in fact all of you, have never seen before.  It looks beautiful when you’re in the air looking at the city.  Beauty shouldn’t be so far away though.  And by that I mean that once you get down in the city to fend off the robot terrors and other things, the city becomes quite dull.  You have a health meter to track the damage to the city so I would expect it to be more alive than what it is.  For Metropolis to be the center of what Superman must protect, it seems the life of it just isn’t there once you head down to the city to do battle.  The life in it is rather bland.  The population does react to Superman albeit in a pretty robotic way.  As you fly by you’ll hear casual conversation or cries for help.  But none of this is of critical importance and none of it matters to the story.  I was flying about with Superman thinking of how cool it would have been to use his super hearing to actually pick up on some casual conversation in the streets below describing some trouble and have him respond accordingly.  It could be a target identifying a building that you’d have to use your hearing on but you get the point.  As it stands right now your super hearing it automatic and that’s how the icons of trouble appear.

It was great to hear the actual actors and actress from the movie doing their own character’s voice for the game.  It adds to the believable factor when you’re doing a “movie” game.  I can’t say that either of them made me feel like they were having fun but that’s not why I played the game.  I didn’t care to hear the voice actors really.  The music and other effects were decent enough to carry what little suspense there was throughout the game.  The best sound perhaps was the sound barrier breaking when you hit that lovely RB button and held it for a while.  Trust me, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Xbox Live Extras

Unfortunately there is no Xbox Live multiplayer in the game.  But ofcourse there will be plenty of downloadable content to go around.  There are themes and picture packs available now in the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Conclusion

I enjoyed this game.  I didn’t play it to hear any of the voice actors or see how closely it followed the movie.  I wanted to be Superman!  This game allowed me to do that for the most part.  It’s the best Superman has ever been in a game.  I really felt like I was above Metropolis flying at times.  And even using the powers felt every bit of what I expect they’d feel like if I was the Man of Steel himself.  I think the foundation is solid for any other Superman titles that EA wants to develop.  It has its share of faults and shortcomings but I think everyone who plays it will agree that it’s the first time they’ve actually felt like Superman.

Is it able to leap tall $60 bounds?  Perhaps not but it can clearly hurdle above any rental price you come across.  You just might decide to keep Superman around after trying it.  Don’t forget to check out the Superman Returns interview with Jeff Peters if you haven’t already.